“The Handmaid’s Tale ”Author Margaret Atwood Offers Her Perspective on Viral 'Trad Wife' Social Media Trend

The 86-year-old literary icon is best known for her 1985 dystopian novel, which was later adapted into a hit Hulu series by the same name

NEED TO KNOW

• Margaret Atwood offered her perspective on the “trad wife” lifestyle trend during a Q&A with Time, which was published on May 6
• The 86-year-old author of The Handmaid’s Tale and its sequel, The Testaments — both of which have been adapted into Hulu series — dismissed the idea that the viral concept actually mirrors centuries-old societal expectations of women
• Many popular “trad wife” creators on social media generally promote the idea that a woman should play a more dated, homemaker-type role in the home

Margaret Atwood is chiming in on the "trad wife" conversation.

In a recent interview with Time, the highly decorated author discussed her best-known work, The Handmaid's Tale, the 1985 dystopian novel later adapted into a hit Hulu series by the same name, which ran for six seasons until its finale in May 2025. Atwood, 86, also talked about the book's more recently published sequel, The Testaments. The second book came to life on screen as well, having premiered on Hulu on April 8.

Both The Handmaid's Tale and its 2019 follow-up take place in Gilead, a grim vision of a future United States that represses women into the fabric of a patriarchal landscape. The books revolve around the societal rules that force fertile women to bear children for the elite class.

During her Q&A with Time, which was published on May 6, Atwood was asked for her thoughts on the viral "trad wife" lifestyle, which promotes the idea that a woman should play a more dated, homemaker-type role in the home. One social media personality who went viral for partaking in the trend describes the ideal trad wife as a “woman who prefers to take a traditional or ultra-traditional role in marriage."

Some women who identify as trad wives also place a high value on living "natural" lives, whether in favoring unmedicated births and using raw ingredients when cooking.

While the literary icon acknowledged that she's aware of the concept, Atwood dismissed the idea that today's trad wives resemble the type of married women who existed in the 19th century.

"If you were a farmer, you had to have a wife. You could not run that thing without somebody doing the cooking, gardening, keeping the chickens, the quilting. These were fairly marginal operations. You needed somebody who knew how to use up every leftover, repurpose any form of cloth," Atwood told Time. "That's very far from what people thinking that they are trad wives now are doing."

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She compared the current trad wife's routine to being "a little bit like Marie Antoinette playing at being a milkmaid." She continued, "It's not really a milkmaid. Although trad wives do a certain amount of this and that, they're by no means a 19th-century runner of a household."

Atwood also put forth an observation about the modern circumstances of the women upholding what are perceived as outdated principles. "Most trad wives exist in families with a reasonable amount of money. Otherwise, they would not be able to afford to do this," she concluded.

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